Rock me like a hurricane

Saturday, August 27, 2011

As I write this email, we are waiting for Hurricane Irene to show up. Supposedly, even though we are not on the ocean, Hurricane Irene will not care and is expected to come ripping through the northeast tonight and tomorrow. I went over to Bill's today to make sure my brumby was ready for the storm. I found her and QTee in their storm location up in the hilly pasture behind Bill's house. If you are an animal in this pasture, you have access to the barn.


Bill had put QTee and Lilly up there, and all the other horses were back from the Big Pasture so they'd be closer to the house. So they are in the pasture across the road. Bill asked me to label each horse, in case (GOD FORBID) they get out in any stormy chaos. So I labeled each one of them while Bill got his generator working. Do you see Charlie sporting his duct tape label?


Then I walked up to the Big Pasture where the donkeys were still hanging out. I brought them down so they will be with Lilly, Qtee, the cow and the alpaca in the hilly pasture. They came along with me obediently.


On the way back with the donkeys, I spied these two little puffball mushrooms tenaciously growing right in the road!


Looks like everyone at the farm is as good as they can be! At my own house, Brandon was busy battening down our own hatches. I love that phrase: batten down the hatches. We are expecting to lose power, so we have all of our out-of-power provisions ready. This mostly means a lot of water. Luckily, we do have a pond in our yard if we need water by the bucketsful.


Earlier in the week, when Irene was just a little threat, we actually had a little earthquake! I was at work when this happened and it was very clear the earth was shaking. Everyone I work with became excited and hysterical. We don't really get earthquakes around here. But after work, it is nice to leave the drama and go see Lilly. Which is what I did on Wednesday night, earlier this week. Here is Lilly all ready for some ring time. That's Brandon in the back, talking with Andy, Bill's son. And Getty is there, probably looking for some hoof trimmings. Yuck!


Down in the ring, Jackie K was trying an english saddle on her dear Pokey. There is Pokey nibbling at her toes instead of posing for a photo.


While we were riding, Brandon was back in the woods where he found this mushroom. It is called an Inky Cap, so named because their spores are black and turn to ink when the cap breaks down.


We didn't do too much in the ring. I just trundled around on Lilly, making small attempts to ignore the blustery wind and the trees swaying around. Wind is my least favorite weather event.


This is Lilly watching longingly as Jackie finishes with Pokey and leads him out of the ring. I don't consider my brumby to be herd-bound or barn sour, but she does not prefer to be the only one down in the ring...especially when it is getting so close to hay time for the night!!!! Poor little thing. She has such a difficult life.


I hope all of my east coast neighbors fare well as Irene arrives!
Good Luck, everyone!





6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope all is well for you and yours during the hurricane - hang in there!

juliette said...

Good luck tonight and tomorrow! I put my boys in! I never do that and we aren't supposed to get the wind, but the bugs were horrid this afternoon and this evening so I stuck them inside.

Lilly looks so happy in her getaway barn. I hope the duct tape isn't necessary.

Frizzle said...

A few words of advice from a Hurricane Expert:

- Tape on the windows is useless. I have no idea why people still do that (???). If anything, put plywood on the windows.

- I have been amazed at what some northerners are saying they've stockpiled for the storm -- movies? Stocked refrigerators? Cooked Pasta??? Seriosly?? You need lots of water (thank goodness you're one of the smart northerners!!), tons of non-perishable food, flashlights, batteries, candles, matches, gas or charcoal for your grill, extra dog/cat/bunny food, maybe a few good books, and some emergency hurricane M&Ms, Double Stuff Oreos, and other non-perishable comfort foods.

- Here in Florida, we put luggage tags on our horses, with all the farm/owner info written on them. One goes on the halter, the other gets braided into the tail. Then we write the same info ON the horse with agricultural markers (you can get them in the livestock section of Valley Vet, KV Vet, etc.). Some people put boots on the legs to protect them, and fly masks on so nothing gets in the horses' eyes. A bunch of us are also going to buy reflective halter covers/leg-bands/tail-covers to make the horses easier to spot in the dark.

- Here's a good link with lots of other great advice: http://www.floridahorse.com/hurricane/hurricane.html

Make sure ya take this seriously! I know it's only a Cat. 1, but I've been through a few of those, and some of the damage included the roof being ripped off the shed, part of the fence coming down, lots of branches and even a few big trees down, tiles ripped off the roof, flooding (people were boating down my street!), and loooong power outages.

Good luck!! I'll be thinking of you and Lily.
:-)

Amber said...

I love that you labeled the horses ... one more useful reason to keep duct tape around!

Lily looks adorable AND prepared for the weather :)

PS - have I ever mentioned how fascinating your mushrooms are? Thank you so much for the education!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Hah! Perfect song for your post! I hope you all have come through safe and unscathed. Good idea to label the horses, but won't they nibble the tape off? Or are they good ponies? hehe!

Good for you still getting out and riding despite the earthquake, and impending hurricane. Wow. sounds like a wild ride. I guess the time in the saddle was much tamer, eh? :)

~Lisa

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Oh...and I love that barn and the cow skull. It has such character, especially with a pony head peeking out :)

~Lisa

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